Giant Bomb News

The Long Wait for Max Payne Is Almost Over

We glean some answers from lead gameplay designer Sergei Kuprejanov a few weeks before Max Payne 3 finally hits shelves.

Max Payne 3 is a Rockstar Games production, which means it was originally supposed to be released a long time ago, and it's still not out. First, late 2009. Then, 2010. Later, 2011. Finally, March 2012. Wait, no, May 2012.

It now seems like the return of Max Payne is just a few weeks away, but with Rockstar Games, you never know. Unless there’s an unexpected twist, Max Payne 3 will arrive on store shelves on May 15.

“Max Payne 3 required us to apply the same kind of focus and attention to detail that we’d use on an open world to the design challenges of more linear, more precise action-shooter,” said lead gameplay designer Sergei Kuprejanov recently over email. “Everything has to withstand scrutiny in real time and Bullet Time.”

Max Payne 3 is largely set in Brazil, but not entirely. The game opens in New York.

A few months later, Max Payne 3 showed up on the cover of Game Informer. Max’s new, beard-laden, wife beater-enhanced look was revealed, and fans weren’t universally happy with the new direction. It was clear Rockstar Vancouver was putting their stamp on the series, but it wasn’t necessarily a stamp series fans wanted.

Rockstar had experience taking over an existing series before. Red Dead Redemption was technically the follow-up to Red Dead Revolver, remember? The difference here, however, was that people really cared about Max Payne.

Kuprejanov told me the reaction didn’t prompt Rockstar to alter the direction of Max Payne 3. It was patient.

“To be honest, we didn't change anything design wise,” he said. “Our plans were already pretty tight and we knew that we would give people plenty of what they were asking for. We did, however, hurry up our contract discussions with James McCaffrey, as that wasn't quite finalized at that point, which is why we kept that under wraps.”

McCaffrey was the original voice of Max, and remains the voice of Max in the new game. His involvement was a question mark when the Game Informer story ran, causing fans to question Rockstar's commitment to the past.

One positive sign about the game is the former creatives steering Max have given the thumbs up. Rockstar started showing Remedy builds of Max Payne 3 in 2011, and Kuprejanov described the relationship as one in which Remedy provides feedback to “ensure we got the right overall tone.” Rockstar "didn't want to disturb" Remedy while Alan Wake finished up, and looped them in when that project was complete.

It's not like Remedy's support is a tepid endorsement, either.

"It’s [Max Payne 3] f***ing brilliant," said Remedy CEO Matias Myllyrinne in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. "I’ve had a chance to play it and we’ve worked with Rockstar a little bit--obviously, they’re doing the heavy lifting. They’re doing the development. But they wanted our input on a couple of occasions and we’ve had loads of our people, our core group, who worked on the first two games, give input and it’s awesome."

A running theme behind Kuprejanov’s answers was a desire to maintain secrecy to protect the player experience, even when it seemed like my questions weren’t particularly prying. There's a general sense that much of Max Payne 3 is being purposely kept from us, and it's a refreshing feeling. It's hard to predict what will happen when it boots up.

When I asked, for example, about balancing the fourth wall-breaking tone of the previous games:

“It’s hard to convey every aspect of the game pre-launch without ruining parts of it that we’d rather leave for players to discover,” he said. “Max has always been a wry character, struggling to gain some kind of self-awareness, and that hasn’t changed at all. In terms of tone, we wanted something that worked well with modern body and facial animation and still felt very much like Max Payne. I think when you first hear McCaffrey start speaking in one of the early scene-setting monologues, you know you're back in Max's painful psyche.”

It's unclear how far Rockstar will to walk down that road, but I'm guessing no dream scenes with babies crying.

Perhaps the most important question is this next one: will Address Unknown be back? Address Unknown was a fake TV show set in "New Noir City" that players came across in Max Payne 2. Kuprejanov was coy in a very good way.

“We’re going to let fans discover the answer when they play the game for themselves,” he said.

Max Payne 3 is a Rockstar Games production, which means it was originally supposed to be released a long time ago, and it's still not out. First, late 2009. Then, 2010. Later, 2011. Finally, March 2012. Wait, no, May 2012.

It now seems like the return of Max Payne is just a few weeks away, but with Rockstar Games, you never know. Unless there’s an unexpected twist, Max Payne 3 will arrive on store shelves on May 15.

“Max Payne 3 required us to apply the same kind of focus and attention to detail that we’d use on an open world to the design challenges of more linear, more precise action-shooter,” said lead gameplay designer Sergei Kuprejanov recently over email. “Everything has to withstand scrutiny in real time and Bullet Time.”

Max Payne 3 is largely set in Brazil, but not entirely. The game opens in New York.

A few months later, Max Payne 3 showed up on the cover of Game Informer. Max’s new, beard-laden, wife beater-enhanced look was revealed, and fans weren’t universally happy with the new direction. It was clear Rockstar Vancouver was putting their stamp on the series, but it wasn’t necessarily a stamp series fans wanted.

Rockstar had experience taking over an existing series before. Red Dead Redemption was technically the follow-up to Red Dead Revolver, remember? The difference here, however, was that people really cared about Max Payne.

Kuprejanov told me the reaction didn’t prompt Rockstar to alter the direction of Max Payne 3. It was patient.

“To be honest, we didn't change anything design wise,” he said. “Our plans were already pretty tight and we knew that we would give people plenty of what they were asking for. We did, however, hurry up our contract discussions with James McCaffrey, as that wasn't quite finalized at that point, which is why we kept that under wraps.”

McCaffrey was the original voice of Max, and remains the voice of Max in the new game. His involvement was a question mark when the Game Informer story ran, causing fans to question Rockstar's commitment to the past.

One positive sign about the game is the former creatives steering Max have given the thumbs up. Rockstar started showing Remedy builds of Max Payne 3 in 2011, and Kuprejanov described the relationship as one in which Remedy provides feedback to “ensure we got the right overall tone.” Rockstar "didn't want to disturb" Remedy while Alan Wake finished up, and looped them in when that project was complete.

It's not like Remedy's support is a tepid endorsement, either.

"It’s [Max Payne 3] f***ing brilliant," said Remedy CEO Matias Myllyrinne in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. "I’ve had a chance to play it and we’ve worked with Rockstar a little bit--obviously, they’re doing the heavy lifting. They’re doing the development. But they wanted our input on a couple of occasions and we’ve had loads of our people, our core group, who worked on the first two games, give input and it’s awesome."

A running theme behind Kuprejanov’s answers was a desire to maintain secrecy to protect the player experience, even when it seemed like my questions weren’t particularly prying. There's a general sense that much of Max Payne 3 is being purposely kept from us, and it's a refreshing feeling. It's hard to predict what will happen when it boots up.

When I asked, for example, about balancing the fourth wall-breaking tone of the previous games:

“It’s hard to convey every aspect of the game pre-launch without ruining parts of it that we’d rather leave for players to discover,” he said. “Max has always been a wry character, struggling to gain some kind of self-awareness, and that hasn’t changed at all. In terms of tone, we wanted something that worked well with modern body and facial animation and still felt very much like Max Payne. I think when you first hear McCaffrey start speaking in one of the early scene-setting monologues, you know you're back in Max's painful psyche.”

It's unclear how far Rockstar will to walk down that road, but I'm guessing no dream scenes with babies crying.

Perhaps the most important question is this next one: will Address Unknown be back? Address Unknown was a fake TV show set in "New Noir City" that players came across in Max Payne 2. Kuprejanov was coy in a very good way.

“We’re going to let fans discover the answer when they play the game for themselves,” he said.

I've only played Max Payne 2 (on the PS2), so I'm not exactly the most devoted fan of the series. But man am I ever excited for Max Payne 3! And despite the crippling issues with Max Payne 2's ps2 port, I still managed to love everything that lay beneath the elongated loading times and dodgy frame-rate.

@weegieanawrench: Oh yeah, it's gonna look amazing. I'm not concerned about the HD space as I'd be buying it on Steam anyways but my PC is lagging behind on the graphics card side. If I buy the 360 version, I've got no worries. Maybe get it on the 360 at first, then PC later once I've upgraded my rig.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a quick and easy way to catch up on the series? Max Payne 3 will be my first Max Payne game.

Pre-order it on Steam, you'll get the first two for free right now. They still hold up today.

@DeF

@iAmJohn said:

@OneAndOnlyBigE

Does anyone have a recommendation for a quick and easy way to catch up on the series? Max Payne 3 will be my first Max Payne game.

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. Holds up wonderfully. Still one of the best games ever. It's around $5 or $10 on Steam.

pre-ordering from certain digital sources gets you free downloads of one of the old or both games in some cases. hit google for details.

if you just want the story, head on over to gamespot, they'Ve just released a cool video feature about it.

Thanks, my PC barely runs Superbrothers Sword and Sworcery :-) So I'll head on over to GS for the video. Predictably, my concern is that I won't catch or understand the various call-backs and references without playing the games though.

Yeah, huge fan of the first two games. God help me, I'm writing this while using the Max Payne mouse pad that was packed in with the first game. So yeah. Super bummed when that Game Informer dropped. This last big media push as really done a lot of good, though. It looks like R* isn't pulling a DmC on this one like we feared.

My anticipation now boils like the blood from a dead raccoon seeping onto the the endless ebony expanse of an Arizona freeway under a blazing summer sun that burns hotter than the Hell that is my shattered, empty life.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a quick and easy way to catch up on the series? Max Payne 3 will be my first Max Payne game.

Pre-order it on Steam, you'll get the first two for free right now. They still hold up today.

@DeF

@iAmJohn said:

@OneAndOnlyBigE

Does anyone have a recommendation for a quick and easy way to catch up on the series? Max Payne 3 will be my first Max Payne game.

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. Holds up wonderfully. Still one of the best games ever. It's around $5 or $10 on Steam.

pre-ordering from certain digital sources gets you free downloads of one of the old or both games in some cases. hit google for details.

if you just want the story, head on over to gamespot, they'Ve just released a cool video feature about it.

Thanks, my PC barely runs Superbrothers Sword and Sworcery :-) So I'll head on over to GS for the video. Predictably, my concern is that I won't catch or understand the various call-backs and references without playing the games though.

alternatively, you can probably get used PS2 versions for very cheap if you got access to one?!

@OneAndOnlyBigE: just watch the mount stupid spot on gamespot.com, it was a pretty good wrap, and I did actually play the first 2 games, so it was a nice refresher. Im also comforted that Remedy actually saw the game, played it, and thought it was awesome. Kudos to rockstar for not leaking any info! you guys are the shiznit!!!! I cant wait till may 15 :D

Does anyone have a recommendation for a quick and easy way to catch up on the series? Max Payne 3 will be my first Max Payne game.

Pre-order it on Steam, you'll get the first two for free right now. They still hold up today.

@DeF

@iAmJohn said:

@OneAndOnlyBigE

Does anyone have a recommendation for a quick and easy way to catch up on the series? Max Payne 3 will be my first Max Payne game.

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. Holds up wonderfully. Still one of the best games ever. It's around $5 or $10 on Steam.

pre-ordering from certain digital sources gets you free downloads of one of the old or both games in some cases. hit google for details.

if you just want the story, head on over to gamespot, they'Ve just released a cool video feature about it.

Thanks, my PC barely runs Superbrothers Sword and Sworcery :-) So I'll head on over to GS for the video. Predictably, my concern is that I won't catch or understand the various call-backs and references without playing the games though.

alternatively, you can probably get used PS2 versions for very cheap if you got access to one?!

The PS2 version is poor. If you need to go with a console version, get the Xbox one.

Perhaps the most important question is this next one: will Address Unknown be back? Address Unknown was a fake TV show set in "New Noir City" that players came across in Max Payne 2. Kuprejanov was coy in a very good way.

Noir York not New Noir, patrick!

"I think when you first hear McCaffrey start speaking in one of the early scene-setting monologues, you know you're back in Max's painful psyche.”

I replayed MP1 & 2 recently and they still hold up. From what I've seen on the dev videos for Max Payne 3, it seems like it will still feel like a Max Payne game, but without all the clunky weirdness that would sometimes occur with the animation and such.

I really hope there is some kind of nightmare sequence in the new one, they are very much a feature of the series and they stuck out in my memory before I replayed them.